Fred Turner on the Rise of Digital Utopianism

12:46 PM Dec 06, 2006

Resuming for a moment my professionally ironic role of nptech skeptic, I can't recommend highly enough this video (or this audio) of Stanford prof Fred Turner discussing his new book. Turner elegantly teases out paradoxes and historical contingencies in the narrative of cyber-liberation and lays out some unresolved challenges that will shape its evolution in the future. For nonprofits and social change advocates -- whether they come to the cause by way of computers, to computers by way of the cause, or a little of both -- it's a riveting exploration ... and a gentle warning. "Institutions are where material power is concentrated Institutions are the places that can deploy the national guard to shoot the protesters and shut them right up. Institutions are who can send our troops abroad. Institutions are who control our funding." -Fred Turner

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